And they were not going to be satisfied with crummy Elizabeth Street. In September, after licking their wounds over in Brooklyn and down in Florida, the Eagles with their leader Paul Ma - Nicky’s main rival - returned. Two years ago Nicky and the Shadows pushed the surly Eagles off the street. After all, it’s happened before.Ĭould again. If another group of Hong Kong teenagers - say their arch enemy the White Eagles or the hard-charging Flying Dragons, who take target practice on the pigeons down by the East River - should show the On Leong they’re smarter or tougher than the Shadows, Nicky’s boys could be gone tomorrow. In any event, it is enough to buy a swift $7000 Peugeot to tool down Canal Street in.īut tongs are fickle. The money filters down to Nicky and his lieutenants they filter the spoils down to the younger Shadows.įor Nicky, working with the tongs means a premiere position among the other warlords in Chinatown, plus a weekly income that ranges from $200 to $2000, depending on who you talk to. The gangs also act as runners in the Chinatown Connection heroin trade, bringing the stuff across the Canadian border and spreading it throughout New York. The Shadows also provide the muscle for their version of the age-old restaurant-protection racket (not to mention considerable “freelance” extortion on the side). The gangs guard the gambling houses in the On Leong territory that operate in the musty lofts and basements along Mott Street. Working with the On Leong gives the Shadows a piece of the money generated by tong (the word means simply “hall” or “association”) activities. He has piloted the once ragtag Shadows from the bleak days when they were extorting a few free meals and dollars from the greasy spoons over on East Broadway to their current haunt, Mott Street, the big time.Ĭontrolling Mott Street means the Shadows get to affiliate themselves with the On Leong tong, the richest and most influential organization in Chinatown. Since then Nicky’s rise in the Chinatown youth gang world has been startling. The cop, in New York for a surprise visit, ran across Wong and his betrothed in the Chinese Quarter Nightclub beneath the approach ramp to the Manhattan Bridge and blew off both their heads with his police revolver. Nicky’s been the top Shadow ever since 1973, when the gang’s former big boss Nei Wong got caught with a Hong Kong cop’s girlfriend. He was the gun-wielding wild man, always up for action, willing to do anything to get attention. When he first got into the gangs half a dozen years ago, people say he had the biggest mouth in Chinatown. No way he would end up a faceless waiter headed for the TB ward. The old Hong Kong people naively called this new slum “Gum Shan,” which means Gold Mountain. A good-looking skinny guy with searing brown eyes wearing a green army fatigue jacket, Nicky is the leader of the Ghost Shadows, the gang of 50 or so Hong Kong immigrants who’ve been terrorizing Chinatown for the past few years.īorn Hin Pui Lui in the Kowloon slums 22 years ago, Nicky came to “low tow” (Chinatown) in the late ’60s. Pacing back and forth in front of the coffee shop at 56 Mott Street, Nicky Louie has got a lot to lose if there’s any serious gunplay tonight. Ask him how business is and he shakes his head, “No good.” Ask him why and he points his finger right between his eyes and says, “bang!” At the Sun Sing Theatre on East Broadway, underneath a hand-painted poster of a bleeding kung fu hero, a security guard is fumbling with a padlock. Ladies bleary from a 10-hour day working over sewing machines in the sweatshops are hurrying home and restaurants are closing earlier than usual. The old waiters look both ways before going into the gambling joint on Pell Street. Midnight in Chinatown, everyone seems nervous.
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